It’s official – both The Burn Zone and Alice in No-Man’s-Land are getting audiobooks! I’m very excited about this and am so glad to be working with both narrators – Jeannie Lin (who is narrating The Burn Zone) and Miette Deschenes (who is narrating Alice). They’ve both submitted their first 15 minutes or so and …

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This is a topic that’s been on my mind ever since I first began writing, really, and certainly ever since I was first published. With books out in the wild you get all sorts of people reading your work, and those people come from all walks of life, backgrounds, etc. Every reader brings their own …

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So, Alice in No-Man’s-Land has been out for a week or two now. It hasn’t jumped to the top of the NYT Bestseller list of course, but it’s getting a very good response so far. More or less everything has gone about as I expected so far – the ‘having to coordinate everything yourself’ part, …

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Okay, it’s official – my latest novel is out in the wild! The book is called Alice in No-Man’s-Land, and you can learn more about it by clicking on the cover image below: I’m going to be up front about this right off the bat; this particular novel was not picked up by a …

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Part 1 can be seen HERE. Well, it’s been four years or so since I became a sponsor for Fatou Cham, who lives in The Gambia. The Gambia is located in Western Africa, but from what I’ve been able to figure out the region is mercifully free from Ebola, and Fatou is still doing well. …

It’s official – both The Burn Zone and Alice in No-Man’s-Land are getting audiobooks! I’m very excited about this and am so glad to be working with both narrators – Jeannie Lin (who is narrating The Burn Zone) and Miette Deschenes (who is narrating Alice). They’ve both submitted their first 15 minutes or so and they’re both doing an amazing job.

Check out the samples below – I got an especially big kick out of Jennie’s interpretation of the ‘mysterious transmission’ as well as the A.I. advertising bot in The Burn Zone:

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This is a topic that’s been on my mind ever since I first began writing, really, and certainly ever since I was first published. With books out in the wild you get all sorts of people reading your work, and those people come from all walks of life, backgrounds, etc. Every reader brings their own experiences and world view to the table when they start reading, and I’ve always found it really interesting just how varied different people’s responses can be to the same work. One thing that always stood out to me, though, are those (relatively rare) occasions where something that occurs in a book – it doesn’t have to even be one of mine – that upsets the reader so much it causes them to stop viewing the work as a whole and start focusing almost exclusively on that one aspect.

By way of an example, say an author were to write a book about the deep south in the late 1800’s when lynchings were reaching a peak. If it were to be at all realistic then some of the characters, even main characters, therein would be horribly racist by today’s standards and would likely use a lot of inflammatory language and racial slurs. I can understand a reader who feels very strongly about racism in America feeling that the character in question is racist, but what I understand a lot less is when that same reader goes on to declare the book that contains the character is automatically racist, and maybe even extend that label to the author who wrote it as well. To me, that begins to smell a little like ‘books shouldn’t contain racism at all’ but, to go back to the post’s title, portrayal and endorsement really are two entirely different things. If you take the ugliness out of the world you’re attempting to portray then you end up with a story that isn’t fully honest. The film ‘The Help’ comes to mind and kind of relates to this example – there was a darkness in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s that it kind of glossed over. So, it wasn’t scary or violent and probably spared a lot of people from feeling bad or uncomfortable, but it also rang a little untrue.

This comes up a handful of times with every book I write, sometimes because of violence, sometimes because of smoking, sometimes because of drug or alcohol use, and sometimes it’s misogynistic language. I know at least a handful of people who read The Burn Zone didn’t care for the main character’s smoking and drug use, as if these were being portrayed as ‘good’ things because the protagonist did them, but the main character of that novel had experienced trauma on a level few of us ever will. I didn’t feel it was unrealistic that she might turn to something to help numb that, in fact I felt the opposite since time and time again that is exactly what people do in real life. I had her do those things because they felt real to me. It doesn’t mean I think young people should take up smoking and do a lot of drugs. Likewise, some have complained about the misogynistic slurs that appear in Alice in No-Man’s-Land, often voiced by one of the main characters (at least in the novel’s earlier chapters) but again, at that point she’s intentionally trying to be mean. Sometimes people are assholes. Even when they aren’t really assholes at heart, sometimes they’re just frustrated and angry and are reaching for the most hurtful thing they could say to someone – and sometimes they use the exact same language that has been hurtful to them in the past. That to me feels realistic. In fact I’ve seen it play out in real life, which is part of why I used it. It doesn’t mean I think people should say those things as a matter of course in the real world.

Something similar actually happened during the editing of my debut novel where I was essentially told ‘they will not print that word’. I changed it – in part because in that particular case I didn’t feel like it was central to the character or anything, and in part because it was my first novel and I didn’t want to get combative right out of the gate, but it always bugged me just a little. It felt to me like ‘there are limits to what art should portray, because some things are inappropriate in any context’ and I just can’t agree with that. It doesn’t mean I hate people who feel that way because I don’t, but I can’t agree with it.

On those occasions I’m afraid we must (I hope respectfully) agree to disagree.

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So, Alice in No-Man’s-Land has been out for a week or two now. It hasn’t jumped to the top of the NYT Bestseller list of course, but it’s getting a very good response so far. More or less everything has gone about as I expected so far – the ‘having to coordinate everything yourself’ part, as well as the ‘launching without the platform of a major publisher’ part (more on that in a later post). One part was a little bit unexpected, though, and that’s what I wanted to post about today.

When I decided to self-publish Alice in No-Man’s-Land, I knew there would be both a kind of liberation (more freedom to do what I wanted, and less pressure to hit a certain invisible sales target before a certain invisible deadline) and also new hurdles (there is still a stigma attached to self-publishing and, as noted earlier, you have to coordinate finding an editor, cover-designer, etc. yourself…or in my case with help from a great agent). The unexpected bit was just how supportive the people I’ve dealt with over the years were when I approached them about this particular project.

When I first sent out feelers in an attempt to get more exposure for Alice I was very up front about the fact that, unlike my previous novels, this one was self-published. When I did that, I fully expected that most of the bloggers, reviewers, etc. I contacted would be either unable (some sites have strict policies against reviewing self-published novels, largely so that they don’t get buried in requests I think) or unwilling to spend time promoting a book that wasn’t traditionally published. In some cases that was true, but it truly warmed my heart at just how many people were willing to help me out regardless. I don’t want to name names, mostly because I don’t want to call attention either to those who weren’t able to help me out (again, in most cases it’s a policy thing and rules are rules so there really are no hard feelings), but quite a few people who I wasn’t even sure would remember who I was were more than happy to read the book, review it, and promote it on their sites. While I thanked them all individually, their willingness to help touched me more than they know.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am socially awkward, and this extends to social media as well a lot of the time. The back and forth of social interaction that many people crave often makes me extremely anxious – not because I hate it, but because I’m not good at it. When I first sent those feelers out, though, it kicked off a sequence of days where I found myself interacting with responders almost constantly. It felt so overwhelming at times that it did make me anxious, but anxious in a good way (if that’s a thing). Maybe I was more excited than anxious. People I did not expect to asked for copies of my novel to read, and offered me words of encouragement and support which were really important to me because I wasn’t sure how this whole thing would be received.

Thankfully, so far it’s been received quite well. Not on the NYT Bestseller list yet, no, but the response on Goodreads and Amazon has been extremely positive. It wouldn’t be doing even that without the help of all of the awesome readers/bloggers I’ve met over the years. It may sound corny or cliche, but at the end of the day readers are why I do this, and their enthusiasm for this project really lifts my heart.

Okay, it’s official – my latest novel is out in the wild! The book is called Alice in No-Man’s-Land, and you can learn more about it by clicking on the cover image below:

I’m going to be up front about this right off the bat; this particular novel was not picked up by a publishing house. It was deemed to be not marketable enough (that isn’t a complaint – it kind of falls in a space between YA and Adult and it isn’t a series so this isn’t that surprising to me) but I feel very strongly about this book, and so I decided to self-publish it through my agency rather than shelve it. I’m going to go ahead and call it ‘New Adult’. Yeah, that’s the ticket. New Adult.

So check it out – and also check out my fancy new re-vamped website. Enjoy!

Well, it’s been four years or so since I became a sponsor for Fatou Cham, who lives in The Gambia. The Gambia is located in Western Africa, but from what I’ve been able to figure out the region is mercifully free from Ebola, and Fatou is still doing well. Here is the latest photo of her that I received:

I’m really glad everything is working out for her – in her most recent letter she stated that she was very happy, and that makes me happy. I sent along some extra a while back so that she could get a bicycle (which are a much bigger thing in other parts of the world than they are here), but it looked as though the money was used to buy grain and cloth. She has a birthday coming up, and so I sent along another extra contribution. I’m hoping she gets her bicycle, but at the end of the day I understand (and I’m sure she does too) that they know better what their immediate needs are over there.

I’m glad that I can be of some help, but I’ll fully admit I’m not a particularly ‘engaged’ sponsor. I very rarely write, and even now have a finished letter on my laptop which I haven’t sent though I suppose if I’m being honest I’m not very good at ‘engaging’ all the time even with people who live right next to me so I guess this shouldn’t surprise me. I hope that as long as she is happy and healthy then she won’t feel too short-changed in that regard.

I wrote last time about the good work that ChildFund does, and having been part of their program for four years now I can say that there’s no ‘honeymoon’ period that ends once you start donating. They really stay on top of the whole thing, and I get regular updates to this day. It provides a welcome dose of perspective that I think we should all try and manage.

I look at it this way: Here it seems that I can’t go a day on the internet (something right there that not everyone has access to) without reading or hearing about what plays to me like an almost complete lack of perspective. There seems to be a surge in the media regarding men who are angry that women have complaints about the way they are treated on the street, or in the workplace, or even just how they’re depicted in pop culture. A lot of men seem honestly angry about this (sometimes to the point of making threats, or even acting on those threats) simply because a different perspective is intruding on their own, and that’s the perspective of someone of their same race a lot of the time, who live in the same country and just happen to be a different gender. The phrase ‘white privilege’ makes a lot of people froth at the mouth here, as if it’s some kind of attack, and they seem unable to acknowledge that not everyone is born into the same situation and that while working hard is the best way to improve your station, not everyone starts at the same baseline. I feel like a lot of us can’t even put ourselves in the shoes of our own neighbors, or to imagine what it might be like to live our lives as something or someone other than what we are. I guess the Ebola scare pushed it out in front of me more so than anything else – it was a little shocking (though, I suppose, not that surprising) how many people immediately took the stance ‘close the borders’. Those people live in another part of the world and aren’t worth the risk, however small. It’s disheartening.

Maybe that’s why I like ChildFund so much. I don’t think I could do what they do. I fully admit I’m not devoted enough to travel overseas and help treat Ebola victims, or distribute food or water but ChildFund is. They’re doing the kind of work most of us don’t want to do. It’s not so much that they do it so we don’t have to, I think if they didn’t do it no one else would.

And at the end of the day, if my small contribution can help improve the happiness of a girl on the other side of the planet whom I’ll never meet, then I’ll take it.

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FALLOUT, sequel to THE BURN ZONE, has officially launched! I hope that you enjoy this installment of the Haan series, in which the status quo (such as it was) begins to get upended and the story grows in scope. In THE BURN ZONE, Sam learned a lot about the Haan that she’d never suspected but found herself preoccupied with the struggle to save her father. In FALLOUT, she must decide what to do with this new information and then act on it, which for better or worse, she does.

Old characters return, new characters are introduced, and at least two of them will be changed fundamentally, and irreversibly. Hope to see you there!

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Well, a year has passed since I won the Compton Crook and got to be the GoH at Balticon 2011. With that honor came a second honor, and that was being invited back again this year as one of the GoH to present the award to this year’s winner. This year, the winner was T.C. McCarthy, for his book Germline which you can (and should) buy here, here, and here. I enjoyed myself at this Balticon even more than I did the last one. T.C. McCarthy is not only an excellent writer, but he is a very nice guy and I enjoyed hanging out with him a lot. Like me, he writes on top of a full time job and a full time marriage…only he has three kids to boot. I honestly don’t know how he does it because he didn’t just manage to get published – Germline is a great book. It’s gritty, real, and raw…it shows the ugliness and the sometimes stupidity of war while getting deep into the humanity of those embroiled in it, even those who aren’t quite human. It was right up my alley, and I can’t wait to read the sequel Exogene, which you can (and should) buy here, here and here. All in all I was a lot more relaxed this go around…I got stuck on a few weird panels I wasn’t really suited for, but some of them were really fun. In particular I enjoyed one where the audience threw random words at us and we were forced to come up with a science fiction title and synopsis using a combination of the words, all in about two or three minutes…while kind of high-pressure, it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was approached for a few signings, met a few fans (I’m looking at you, Nicole), did a reading of State of Decay as well as a sneak-peek reading of The Burn Zone, got schooled in Magic the Gathering a little (just a little…enough to know the game is freaking complicated), went to the GoH dinner, played hooky with the tech crew at a greek diner, and topped it off with something called a kaffeeklatsch, where basically you sit around drinking coffee and eating donuts while people ask you questions about writing…a lot of fun. Big, big shout out to Adrienne Reynolds and Joe Ward who kept track of me at a high level, and Romeo (I am an ass and don’t recall his last name) for keeping track of me on a day-to-day basis. They really roll out the red carpet for the GoHs and it was much appreciated once again.

Got to meet a bunch of great authors, artists, and podcasters as well…aside from T.C. I spent time hanging out with Chris Evans, John Anealio, Justin Landon, Michael Sullivan, Myke Cole, Peter V Brett, Ben Deschamps, and more I’m probably forgetting…it was a busy few days. I had a lot of fun on a panel I shared with Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano of Fortress Publishing, which resulted in an invite to submit a story in their upcoming ‘TV Show/Mythological Beings’ mashup anthology, something I’m excited about.

All in all, it was great, great fun. I don’t go to too many ‘cons, but Balticon is worth the trip.

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Ok, a Balticon write up is coming but I’m playing catch-up now that I’m back. Until then, head on over to the Bookish Brunette to check out my guest post, and for a chance to win an entire signed trilogy from your’s truly. You can do both by clicking the link below, or the image to the left.

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I never set out to make most of my protagonists female, it just kind of turned out that way. When you look at the Revivors series, you could say the ‘main’ protagonist (Nico Wachalowski) and the ‘main’ antagonist (Samuel Fawkes) are both male but the story is told from four viewpoints and Nico shares the stage with Calliope Flax, Faye Dasalia, and Zoe Ott, all female. Even the sort of secondary antagonist is female. The Burn Zone (scheduled for a 2013 release) is told from a single, female point of view. My stab at YA (still in need of a home) features a female lead as well.

Not all of my stories do…one finished manuscript sitting on the back burner features a single male protagonist, and another follows a young boy, but when I tallied them all up I realized a lot of my leads were female. I wondered why. I realized I wasn’t totally sure, but decided I was okay with that because more strong female characters in the wild is a good thing, and if I can provide even just a few more along the way then great.

An author friend of mine once told me that my female characters were ‘mannish’ and that as male authors we ‘lacked the equipment’ to write female characters well, but I don’t buy that. I don’t write my female characters as ‘girly’ but I don’t write them as male analogues either. I just assume that in spite of the fact that there are obvious differences between men and women, there is a lot that is the same. Maybe I’m wrong but I write women under the premise that it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, the things that affect us all the most deeply fall under the umbrella of ‘human’ and not gender. I write women under the premise that there isn’t a ‘female’ and ‘male’ way to respond to every different situation. In State of Decay Nico and Faye are both obsessed with their jobs, and their individual investigations, for two different reasons that have nothing to do with their genders. They’re a male and female investigating (as they come to find) the same case. They react differently to the things they encounter but not in a male and female way – they react in a Nico and Faye way. The two other female leads in the series (Calliope and Zoe) are polar opposites even though they’re both women of roughly the same age. Calliope tends to go straight for the throat and Zoe tends to clam up and retreat inward. Those same two personality traits could be applied to two men.

I don’t buy that a man can’t write a woman well and visa-versa because we lack the other’s ‘equipment’. We all have brains, and we all have vulnerabilities and desires. The degree to which we’re willing to share them, even, isn’t strictly a male vs. female thing.

Here’s the thing – there are exceptions of course but the media in general, and Hollywood in particular, tend to offer a never-ending parade of completely shitty role models for women and girls. The so-called ‘tough’ ones tend to be model beautiful with curvy figures, only with short hair. The so-called ‘smart’ ones tend to be model beautiful with curvy figures, only with glasses. Female roles (more so it would seem than male roles) are cast with a big emphasis on looks, even to the point where no one seems to care if the women playing them are even old enough to hold the positions they supposedly hold (scientist, detective, etc). When I saw Cowboys and Aliens (horrible film, btw) and Olivia Wilde first appeared, I commented to my wife ‘how long do you think it will be before they strip her?’ Sure enough, it wasn’t long. The message is pretty consistent and clear in a lot of movies, TV, websites and magazines – as a woman you only count if you’re pretty, and sexy. Those things are prized more highly than ability, intelligence or strength. It bugs me.

Years back, I was at a karate tournament where males and females of all ages were competing, and a friend of mine was one of the judges. I remember after one of the matches, he handed a little girl who had been competing her trophy for first place, and he told her he was proud of her. She looked at the trophy, and the little plastic figure of a man throwing a kick on top, and wondered aloud ‘why can’t there be a girl on top?’ He smiled, not really having a good answer for that. The girl was gracious, but I could tell she thought it was bullshit. I did too. It wasn’t a ‘girl’ reaction on her part, it was a human reaction to not being represented even though she’d done the work to earn it.